I warned Hussain he faced the chop

ENGLAND skipper Michael Vaughan revealed one of his first tasks in his new role was to warn predecessor Nasser Hussain to forget the last difficult days of his own captaincy or risk being dropped from the national side.

ENGLAND skipper Michael Vaughan revealed one of his first tasks in his new role was to warn predecessor Nasser Hussain to forget the last difficult days of his own captaincy or risk being dropped from the national side.

The Yorkshire star succeeded Hussain as captain during the 2003 home series against South Africa after the latter's shock abdication from the post.

Vaughan noted how Hussain had looked out of sorts in the Test side since he succeeded the Essex man as one-day captain and upon taking on the captaincy in the longer form of the game, had to have a heart to heart with him.

"After my first Test in charge at Lord's I had to sit him down and tell him in no uncertain terms that, if he was picked for the next match, no way could he turn up with the downbeat attitude he had in that match," Vaughan recalled.

"I told him to get out of his system the fact that he was no longer captain. He said 'I'm sorry. I've been so unhelpful'.

"He totally agreed with what I'd said, which tells you a lot about the man."

Hussain proceeded to make a key contribution with a century at Trent Bridge before calling time on his Test career after a second-innings century against New Zealand last May.

* Kevin Pietersen's marvellous maiden year at the top level was honoured in yesterday's ICC awards.

Pietersen's destructive batting earnt him both the one-day player and emerging player gongs at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Andrew Flintoff, meanwhile, shared the main prize of cricketer of the year with South African Jacques Kallis despite the qualification period excluding his outstanding performances in the last four Ashes Tests.

"If you look at most innings when I have scored my runs, I have been under the most extreme pressure," Pietersen said. "I don't care how big the occasion is. I just enjoy myself doing something I love."